When this year's Tony Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning, Idina Menzel was too preoccupied to tune in.

The star of the new Broadway musical If/Then was busy "trying to get my four-year-old son out the door and to school," she says. "I was trying to be a responsible mom."

Eventually, Menzel got a phone call confirming what many had expected: that the actress and singer, who earned the Tony for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical 10 years ago — for originating the part of misunderstood witch Elphaba in Wicked — was up for another, this time for playing a woman seeking fulfillment in two alternate lives.

"It disappointed me that the show didn't get more acknowledgment," Menzel admits; If/Then collected only one other nod, for best original score, for composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey. "But it meant a lot to me, coming back after all these years in something that means so much to me — something made from scratch, by this amazing creative team."

Menzel know that the character of Elizabeth, whom we see facing different challenges as Liz and Beth, would mean a lot to women, but has discovered "that she speaks just as much to men, who sometimes need more tissues than my girlfriends have. It shows the universality of some of our choices and regrets, and our capacity to redefine who we are at every moment."

Having gotten attention since her last Main Stem outing for a stint on TV's Glee and, more recently, giving voice to the role of Elsa in Disney's film smash Frozen, Menzel has found it gratifying "to be back in New York, which is where I feel the most at home"; and she's pleased to be recognized by Tony nominators "in a category with these girls I love and respect very much. It's nice to be part of the club."

Not that she'll be bragging about it to her son. "I probably won't even tell him," Menzel says, laughing. "He wouldn't care. He barely cares about Elsa."